White Tears Brown Scars is required reading for white women and recommended for everyone. You might see the title and subject and think, "I'm not racist, why should I read this?" To those with such thoughts, I urge you to set aside preconceptions about yourself and the racial dynamics at play, and read it anyway. Though at times this book felt uncomfortable, the greater historical context alongside personal anecdotes provided by Hamad offers a fresh perspective on feminism. As Hamad puts it, "We consider a challenge to our racial worldviews as a challenge to our very identities as good, moral people. Thus, we perceive any attempt to connect us to the system of racism as an unsettling and unfair moral offense."

Ruby Hamad delivers a thoughtful and well-researched narrative, unraveling the multifaceted nature of white feminism and its ongoing disenfranchisement of women of color. What struck me most was Hamad's use of historical context to reveal the roots of white feminism and its enduring impact on society. She repeatedly demonstrates that white women are complicit in white supremacy, not merely products of it. The juxtaposition between the imagery of a helpless, pure, chaste, white woman and a promiscuous, animalistic, Jezebel black woman forms the foundation of white society's racial hierarchy. It also serves as the basis for how white women, consciously or unconsciously, wield this imagery to win arguments and gain undeserved support. Hamad highlights, "Whiteness, then, is more than skin color. It is, as race scholar Paul Kivel describes, 'a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to have certain privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence [are] justified by their not being white.'"

Hamad explores how terms like "nonwhite" imply whiteness as a neutral default and discusses the lengths to which different groups attempt to assimilate themselves into white society, for instance skin bleaching practices in Asia, caste systems based on skin color in Mexico, and the concept of "passing". She goes beyond the white versus black dichotomy, exploring global implications and incorporating examples from women of black, indigenous, Arabic, and Asian descent and the ways in which imperialism and colonialism have impacted every corner of our society.

I would give this book 4.5 stars. There were moments when Hamad seemed to write in circles, repeating themes and information. I would have preferred a more focused discussion on specific details or a deeper exploration of actions that could counteract the harmful effects of white feminism. Nevertheless, I feel there is much to say about this book and I've really only scratched the surface, and anyways if you read it for yourself, you'll be all the more educated. I highly recommend White Tears Brown Scars to everyone, it is an excellent step in anti-racism education.